Virtually unprecedented at the time of its release, Celtic Frost's debut album, MORBID TALES, left a crater on the face of international heavy metal in which bands are still setting up camp today. At a time when the term "Black Metal" referred mostly to an actual album by contemporaries Venom, Celtic Frost helped broaden and define the genre. That said, MORBID TALES--powerful as it is--is not as head-spinningly ambitious as later efforts such as TO MEGA THERION. What it does offer, however, is a snarling buzzsaw attack of dark intensity. Every song on MORBID TALES establishes a formidable groove as vicious as the thrash metal that followed in its wake, but with a punk brutality and indifference to polish. Also, the uncloaked evil of the lyrics, with songs titles like "Visions of Mortality" and "Procreation (Of the Wicked)" set the stage for descendents such as Slayer and Deicide to explore wickedness even further with their own work.